“Talks are underway” for a junior featherweight clash between RING champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and RING No. 2-ranked WBC titleholder Leo Santa Cruz, Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya informed RingTV.com on Wednesday.

“Hopefully, we can put together what would arguably be one of the best fights of the year with Leo Santa Cruz versus Guillermo Rigondeaux, so talks are underway,” said De La Hoya. “We’re in preliminary talks and they’ve started. That’s a fight that Leo has been asking for and that’s a fight that Rigondeaux has been asking for, so that’s something that we want to deliver to the fans.”

The 26-year-old Santa Cruz (29-0-1, 17 knockouts) is coming off an eighth round technical knockout of Jesus Ruiz on Jan. 17. Prior to that, Santa Cruz blew out overmatched Manuel Roman in two rounds last September in support of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Marcos Maidana rematch.

A 34-year-old southpaw who also holds the WBA and WBO titles, Rigondeaux (15-0, 10 KOs) scored three knockdowns during his 11th round stoppage of Hisashi Amagasa on New Year’s Eve. Rigondeaux had previously scored a first-round knockout of Sod Kokietgym on a Top Rank Promotions card in Macau, China in July, ending a 36-0-1 unbeaten streak for Kokietgym.

“It would have to be after May, sometime in June or July. We haven’t thought about the site or where the fight would take place as of yet,” said De La Hoya. “That would be a perfect Las Vegas fight or I would love to take it to San Antonio or even here at the Staples Center [in Los Angeles.] That would be a great Staples Center fight.”